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The investment sector of our economy, which relies heavily on debt, is in financial trouble. This week brought about the bankruptcy of one of America's oldest and largest investment firms, Lehman Brothers, and the collapse of insurance giant AIG, which suddenly found itself without legs because it was heavily invested in mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. When Fannie and Freddie collapsed last week, their stock became essentially worthless and AIG lost a substantial portion of its cash reserves. The Federal Reserve will now secure half the value of AIG, worth roughly $85 billion.

This article from the NYT Freakonomics blog, which clearly explains the Fannie/Freddie collapse, the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros., and the bailout of AIG, is an absolute must read if you want to understand what happened this week.

New York's investment community was experiencing "a rather difficult
crisis of confidence," but one where people haven't given up hope that
opportunities to make money are still out there, somewhere.

Then consider the fact that foreign governments and investment firms are jumping at the chance to invest in struggling American financial institutions. Despite the great debts that sunk those firms, there is still a considerable amount of real property wealth in this country, as well as positive future valuations for productivity and economic growth, the factors that keep the stock markets in positive territory. Inflation is still low; unemployment has risen slightly but is only 60% of what it is in "progressive" European socialist states like France and Germany; consumer prices have risen this year, but not out of proportion to rising fuel costs; there has yet to be a single quarter of negative economic growth, so we are still no where near a recession. American investors seem to have confidence that the massive, unpredicented government intervention this week will actually bring about economic stability -- the Dow swung wildly (down over 800 points at one point) but ended the week down only 34 points.

As I see things, we took it on the chin this past week, but those blows involved finally coming to grips with some extremely dangerous lending and debt policies that allowed financial firms to grow far beyond their ability to responsibly manage their debts and assets. "Too big to fail" really just means "too big," period. In order to maintain stability, the Federal Reserve (which is simply the financial arm of our federal government) ended up involved at an unprecedented level in the operation of our financial markets. If you are a strict believer in laissez-faire economics and regret the abandonment of the gold standard 35 years ago, then undoubtedly you are very upset right now. I am not an expert in these things, but the positive reaction of the stock market seems to indicate to me that we will weather these crises intact, though perhaps a bit humbled.

A few weeks ago, Forbes Magazine ranked Hollywood's most overpaid actors and actresses, based on the amount of money they make for the studio versus how much they are paid. Actress Nicole Kidman tops the current list, earning only $1 in box office receipts for every dollar she was paid.

Meanwhile, back in the States, Bell Laboratories officially announced that it would be pulling the plug on its fundamental physics research department -- a department that produced scores of invaluable patents and developed such crucial techonolgies as the negative feedback amplifier, information theory, sonar, radar, the transistor, and the laser. In the process, Bell Laboratories scientists took home six Nobel prizes.

Our major financial institutions are dropping like flies -- Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac -- along with some major collateral damage such as insurer AIG, which was heavily invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (their stock is now worth pennies) and has suddenly lost its cash reserves.

This is an election year, and Democrats want to win the White House and retain their majority control over Congress, so it is a sure bet that Republicans will be blamed for everything.

Fortunately, for those of us who like to see all of the facts before we make a decision, the Internet allows us to search news stories from the past 5 or 10 or 15 years, and track the financial meltdown from the time it was just a blip on the radar of a few astute folks, to the current market crisis. Here are some interesting items that have recently been dug up by bloggers:

The three biggest total recipients of political contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are: Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, and John Kerry. All are Democrats. This list is even more stunning when you consider that Obama has only been in the US Senate less than three years, compared to Dodd (27 years) and Kerry (23 years). I'm going to guess that Obama's close ties to community organizing and advocacy outfits like ACORN, with their longstanding support for affordable housing, made Obama the most attractive member of the Senate in terms of supporting anything that Fannie and Freddie wanted. And get this -- Congressional Democrats want to give ACORN and other advocacy groups money from Fannie and Freddie's coffers in the form of an "Affordable Housing Trust Fund."

Whose policies led to the credit crisis? Five years ago, the Bush Administration outlined the oversight problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and proposed much tighter government regulation of them, specifically a new federal oversight agency. Speaking for the Democrats, Congressman Barney Frank said, "These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not
facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the
more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in
terms of affordable housing." In other words, in 2003, Democrats believed that more regulation was a bad idea, because it would put a damper on their expanded affordable housing programs. The "free market" had nothing to do with Bush's proposal or the Democrats' opposition to it.

The Clinton Administration pushed for an aggressive expansion of community development and affordable housing funds, luring banks into providing these loans with guarantees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be underwriting them. Two long-time Clinton cronies, Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick (of pre-9/11 law enforcement "wall" fame) together raided Fannie Mae for over $100 million in compensation, while their financial incompetence and accounting shenanigans cost the company billions.

Here's Robert B. Reich, former Clinton Administration Secretary of Labor, on MSNBC last night (transcript from RushLimbaugh.com):

REICH:
In the latter years of the Clinton administration -- when I was not
there any longer, I should add -- there was an attempt by Alan
Greenspan and Bob Rubin and a few others to deregulate financial
markets, and they did. They split commercial banking off from
investment banking. And many people say, "Well, that was the beginning
of the problem," and then, of course, in 2003-2004, Alan Greenspan
reduced short-term interest rates to the point where every single bank
wanted to lend money. I mean, if you could stand up straight you could
get a bank loan because there was so much pressure to get that money
out the door. Money was so cheap. So, yes, there is some
responsibility on Democrats, some responsibility on Alan Greenspan and
the Fed.

This Washington Post editorial sheds a stunning amount of light on the additional 2005 attempt by Republicans to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with additional oversight and regulation, and the successful efforts of Fannie/Freddie lobbyists and their Democrat acolytes to defeat those reforms. To wit:

President Bush
was receptive to reform. He withheld nominees for Fannie and Freddie's
boards -- a presidential privilege. While it would have been valuable
politically to use such positions to reward supporters, the president
put good policy above good politics.

In subsequent years, officials at Treasury and the Council of Economic Advisers
(especially Chairmen Greg Mankiw and Harvey Rosen) pressed for the
following: Requiring Fannie and Freddie to submit to regulations of the
Securities and Exchange Commission;
to adopt financial accounting standards; to follow bank standards for
capital requirements; to shrink their portfolios of assets from risky
levels; and empowering regulators such as the Office of Federal Housing
Oversight to monitor the firms.

The administration did not accept half-measures. In 2005, Republican Mike Oxley, then chairman of the House Financial Services Committee,
brought up a reform bill (H.R. 1461), and Fannie and Freddie's
lobbyists set out to weaken it. The bill was rendered so toothless that
[Andrew] Card called Oxley the night before markup and promised to oppose it.
Oxley pulled the bill instead.

The story is certainly complicated, but much of the evidence suggested that it was Democrats, not Republicans, who opposed mortgage lending reforms and additional regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Their opposition was linked directly to their support for "affordable housing" (a prominent civil rights/racial issue) and the lobbying dollars that they recieved from Fannie and Freddie. Money definitely talked, and it was Democrats who were listening.

MORE: Here's a link to a video of Daniel Mudd (son of CBS newsman Roger Mudd), CEO of Fannie Mae (he succeeded Franklin Raines) addressing the Congressional Black Caucus in 2005 and telling them, "In many ways I want to tell you today you are also the conscience of Fannie Mae." Ouch. Apparently Fannie Mae's conscience failed it, and big time.

One of the aspects of the Fannie/Freddie fiasco that has not been widely explored is the relationship between low-income housing and civil rights political activism. The sad truth is that Fannie/Freddie reform meant that Republicans would have to butt heads with the racial activists of the CBC. And you know what that means -- if evil white Republicans question or oppose the CBC, they are "racists."

...

Even though Barack Obama has made a big deal out refusing to take "corporate" donations during this election, he has scooped up millions of dollars in individual campaign contributions from officers, executives, and "bundlers" with deep ties to Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Goldman-Sachs, and other deep-pocket financial institutions. And here's much more from Matthew Cooper, writing for Portfolio.com, who investigates more individual contributions and lobbying money that Obama has accepted.

For those who still don't get it, this is not about tit-for-tat between McCain and Obama lobbyists. It is about the fact that Obama was supposed to be an agent of change, a "community" man completely disconnected from corporate deep pockets, looking out for the little guy and doing what is right, as opposed to what corporate benefactors pay him to do. So far, such independence seems to be, to use Bill Clinton's phrase, only a fairy tale.

In light of my recent blogging streak in support of Gov. Sarah Palin, it might come as a surprise to readers that I would write something about community organizing. Here is why I am doing it; it's very simple really -- no one on the Right seems to know anything about community organizing. So I thought I'd offer my two cents.

Wikipedia gives a nice, concise definition: Community organizing is a process by which people are brought together to act in common self-interest. Community organizing is a process that works to identify common needs and common dreams within a community (generally a city neighborhood), and then strives to build a structured organization within that community in order to help its members fulfill their needs and realize their dreams. It is a lengthy, complicated endeavor, and the process of turning a community around can take decades.

Community organizing is also unique because it does not depend on a command or hierarchical structure. Community organizations have directors and board members, but they generally do not have executives. In other words, the success or failure of a community organizing project usually does not rest on the shoulders of one person. This is deliberate, so that power continues to reside within the community rather than in the hands of a few elite individuals.

The word most often associated with community organizing is empowerment. A common maxim is, a lone person is a troublemaker; one hundred people is power. Community organizing has been most successful in poor communities, where the usual tools of power (money and political clout) do not exist. Without some type of organization among their residents, these communities often receive little consideration from city governments, which translates into poor police protection, poor schools, poor public services like trash cleanup and street repairs, and little incentive for urban renewal except for imminent domain seizures and total demolition of existing neighborhoods. Community organizing teaches residents how to cultivate a new type of power -- the power of voices united for a common cause -- and then use this power in a positive and influential way.

A superb example of community organizing is the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, founded in 1984 in a blighted section of Boston that had become a haven for drug dealers, prostitution, and illegal urban dumping. Over the span of 10 years, DSNI cleaned up the garbage (including a protest that culminated with garbage being moved from one of their vacant lots and dumped at City Hall), acquired land from absentee owners through imminent domain powers (a first for a neighborhood organization) and then built parks, renovated storefronts, drove out the drug dealers and prostitutes, and constructed a brand-new housing addition featuring homes priced for middle income families. You can learn more about DSNI by visiting their website.

Now, here's the "so what" part of this post -- what does this have to do with Barack Obama? I'd say the answer relates to simple commitment. Obama was involved in community organizing in South Side Chicago for three years, beginning in 1985. He has often told how meaningful those three years were to him, and how his experiences as a community organizer changed the direction of his life. But apparently Obama was impatient with the slow and frustrating process of community organizing. He left after three years with no real accomplishments to show for his service, save for persuading the City Council to test apartments in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood for asbestos contamination. A colleague said, ""It wasn't end-all. He wanted to be part of the end-all, to get
things done."

Barack Obama's experience with community organizing is only one chapter in his life-long saga of virtually immediate successes in a variety of vocations, no doubt spurred by abundant natural gifts, that seemed to rather quickly produce a frustrating type of ennui. The only way, it seems, for Obama to stay interested in politics was to move quickly from one position to the next, or from one elected office to the next, without having ever stuck with any of them long enough to become a respected or tenured public servant.

I believe that this is a valid and important critique of Barack Obama, but it should not be used to denigrate the process of community organizing, which is a noble effort.

...

I'll conclude with a little disclosure. As a result of my involvement with the JustFaith program, I have elected to join a team of Christian congregations working in partnership with the Industrial Areas Foundation to start a community organizing program here in Oklahoma City. This has been an interesting experience, since the majority of the people involved with this project are very progressive politically, and are staunch Democrats. Still, the things we plan to accomplish are very worthwhile, and I am honored to have the opportunity to work with so many fine people.

_______________________________________

As I suspected, conservative blogs have been writing negatively about community organizing. Or perhaps I should say ignorantly. Read what JayTea has to say over at WizBang, then read the comments. Not surprisingly, names like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and ACORN turn up frequently.

And here's Rush Limbaugh today, "advising" the Obama campaign:

Keep
bringing it up. Keep trying to defend it. Keep trying to explain it.
Keep saying, "Twenty years ago, working with people fired from a steel
plant, Obama's qualified." What did he do for them? Where are they
now? "Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out of
touch politicians and their failed policies." (laughing) Okay, so we
got a great new definition of what community organizing is about:
"Ordinary people respond to out of touch politicians and their failed
policies." Well, then who is the community organizer interfacing
with? If the out of work people talked to the community organizer, who
does he then go to to fix the problem? In Obama's case I'll guarantee
you it's another lawyer or it was Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright or
maybe some state or national congressman. I mean, you talk about out of
touch? Ordinary people run for city councils and become mayors!
Ordinary people do not become community organizers! That's why it's so
rare!

How many of you in your town, if you wanted to become a
community organizer, where would you go to apply? To whom would you
give your resume? What would be your qualifications if you sought to
be a community organizer? You gotta be a community organizer? Don't
give me social programs. Don't give me Meals on Wheels. Those are
handled by other people. Don't give me all this other stuff, homeless
shelters. It's not community organizer. What the hell is it? How many
of you people in your town know where to go to apply for that job? How
many of you in your town know a community organizer? And how many of
you have known a community organizer who went on to something big and
great? Not that they haven't, but how many of you know of one? Well,
yeah, okay. Al Sharpton organized the community with Tawana Brawley. I
mean, what are we talking about here?

Added 9-5-08: Here's more community organizing skepticism from Michelle Malkin, who wastes no time tying Obama to ACORN, its financial shenannigans, and voter fraud.

Lori Byrd at WizBang notes that the new Left meme is "Jesus was a community organizer," which is the intellectual equivalent of "Mary and Joseph were 'homeless.'" Please, just don't go there. Jim Treacher snarks, "Way to get rid of the "He thinks he's the Messiah" meme, geniuses." Heh.

Denver has a good public transportation system, so what is the problem? I suppose that some Democrats are just too special to soil themselves sitting on dirty public bus seats. Or maybe Denver doesn't keep its buses cooled to 65 degrees in the summer. Oh, the humanity.

The DNC is also expecting kooks to turn out in record numbers this year, so they had the city convert an old warehouse into a special secret holding facility for protesters who are arrested. Big Dog writes,

So let’s get this straight. The same Democratic party that howls about
Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA prisons in other countries knew about a
secret prison right here in America built for their convenience. Some
might call that a bit hypocritical. Others, like me, might ask why it
is that the Democrats oppose prisons (secret or not) that house
terrorists and other enemies of our country but are in favor of a
secret prison to house people who show opposition to the Democrats?

Indeed.

...

The Chinese are concerned about the number of empty seats at the Olympics. After all, they gave the citizens of Beijing special passes to the events and extra days off. But common sense tells me that the Chinese have better things to do than waste their time supporting what is becoming nothing more than a huge symbol of the ultimate deception of Communism. A government that goes all-out to impress the international community, yet treats their own citizens like dirt, will garner very little widespread support.

Kristy Grant, the Volusia County, FL, "cat lady" has won her fight to keep 150 cats on her multi-acre cat sanctuary.

...

Legendary record producer Jerry Wexler has died at the age of 91. Wexler turned Atlantic Records from a struggling indie label into the nation's R&B powerhouse through the recordings he produced for Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and many others.

...

Here is a lengthy story about Pottsville, IA, home of Agriprocessors, which was raided by ICE back in May. The town, which was home to hundreds of immigrants from Mexico and South America who worked at the plant, has been devastated. I always find it difficult to read the stories of those who willfully endure suffering just so their children can have a chance at a better future in America. And I am angered by those who have no problem inflicting that suffering just so they can make a bigger buck.

...

If you think that "alternative energy" is somehow morally superior to fossil fuels, then you should read this NT Times story. It seems as though "Big Wind" is just as corrupt as "Big Oil."

...

Rasmussen is reporting that 55% of those it surveyed believe that media bias is more of a problem than out-of-control campaign contributions. Could the recent -- and glaringly obvious -- press cover-up of the John Edwards affair have affected this opinion poll? Politicians have exhausted a lot of wind over the subject of campaign finance reform over the years, but curiously they seem reluctant to talk about bias in the press. Here's a place for them to start: The Washington Post just admitted that its stories on Barack Obama outnumbered its stories about John McCain by 3:1.

...

The National Review's Stanley Kurtz has been investigating the relationship between Barack Obama and former Weather Underground terrorist turned academic icon Bill Ayers. Kurtz reports that the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago houses some 130 boxes of records that could prove very enlightening, but the University has been stifling his attempts to view the contents of those boxes. Silly me -- I thought liberals were always opposed to any efforts aimed at keeping materials away from library patrons.

...

I'm not a believer in the idea of the world "ending" via an unimaginable apocalyptic disaster. If you share my skepticism of "Left Behind" and other doomsday scenarios, you might enjoy this episode of Penn and Teller's Showtime series "Bullshit!" (language warning, for those of you who haven't figured that out yet).

I don't have much to say about John Edwards' extramarital affair except that it proves that John Edwards' devotion to his family is just as phony as his devotion to the poor; specifically, Edwards is devoted to things other than himself only when those things will benefit him financially or politically.

Well, actually I have one more point to make -- just how deeply were Edwards' staff, the Democratic party, and the mainstream media involved in covering up the affair? The story didn't stay out of the press just because a teary-eyed Edwards shamelessly played the cancer card in order to suppress the story. We know that the Los Angeles Times actually told their bloggers not to write about the story. We also know that the New York Times wouldn't touch the Edwards story, even though they had no problem publishing a story about John McCain and a female staffer that was based solely on rumor and unsubstantiated claims.

There is a lot more to this story, and plenty of big names still think that Edwards is lying about ending the relationship two years ago. The best mainstream blogger covering the story is Mickey Kaus. If you want a lot more snark, check out Deceiver.com.

Right now, there is a tenuous cease fire between Russia and Georgia, although Russia shows no signs of leaving Georgia any time soon. And why should they? They sit on the UN Security Council, so they can veto any resolutions passed by the council that are aimed at them. And the current cease fire agreement does not require Russia to recognize any specific sovereign territory belonging to Georgia, nor does it compel them to evacuate from Georgia.

The situation is perilous, particularly because Russia has nuclear weapons and currently feels strong enough to threaten to use them against the new joint Polish-American missile defense shield. The nuclear option is even more troubling considering how poorly equipped and trained the conventional Russian military really is. Steven Den Beste wrote a lengthy piece about the sad condition of the Russian military a few years ago. I imagine that everything he wrote is still true, perhaps worse now.

I don't think an all-out nuclear strike and retaliation between Russia and the West would ever happen, but faced with a conventional military defeat (reminiscent perhaps of Afghanistan), the use of smaller tactical nuclear weapons is certainly an attractive option. And Russia knows that if it uses a small nuke, the UN, NATO, etc. would be powerless to retaliate or really harm them in any way. (I also suspect that Code Pink, International ANSWER, Stop The War Coalition, etc. would waste no time holding the US ultimately responsible.)

So how have the Presidential candidates fared during this crisis? The Campaign Spot notes that McCain has excoriated Vladimir Putin in at least three major speeches going back to 2004. Obama has mentioned Putin only once, in a 2005 speech. And Obama has not mentioned Putin in any of his major campaign speeches this year. (Note: their source lists only major campaign speeches, not off-the-cuff remarks made to crowds or reporters.)

McCain has traveled to the South Ossetia region, which is Georgian territory but is linked politically with Russia, and has been the location of most of the fighting. And he has vigorously condemned the Russian invasion and unequivocally proclaimed his allegiance with the Georgian people. Obama has condemned Russia, but wants only UN intervention (naturally) and seems to have trouble naming a villain in the fight. Of course, as I pointed out earlier, calling for a UN Security Council condemnation is essentially calling on Russia to condemn itself.

This seems to be yet another example of the striking differences between McCain and Obama with respect to foreign policy experience. During his lengthy Senate career, McCain has been involved in US foreign policy and has been a keen observer of various policy decisions throughout the world (by both the US and other nations) and their consequences. On the other hand, Obama, a social activist at heart, has spent the bulk of his short career trying to figure out how the government can become a continually larger benevolent force in the lives of Americans. The bulk of his campaign's foreign policy work consists of touting his opposition to the Iraq war and regurgitating liberal boilerplates about peace and disarmament. In fact, Barack Obama has pledged to work toward dismantling emerging missile shielding programs and pushing for worldwide nuclear disarmament (for which, I am sure, only the US and the West would be held fully accountable).

Obama's image has also been tarnished by his ill-timed Hawaii vacation, occurring during the midst of the Russia-Georgia war. Of course Obama planned this time months ahead, and scheduled it to give himself and his family some time off before the Democratic convention. And Obama is in no position to make a real difference in what happens on the other side of the world. Nonetheless, I see a McCain campaign add evolving from this episode, mixing footage of the fighting in Georgia with footage of Obama body-surfing in Hawaii, and McCain actually visiting the region two years ago.

Unfortunately for Obama, whether it’s 300 or 3,000 foreign policy
advisors he has, nothing - not even one of his fancy speeches - is
going to shake the images of him basking in the sun in Hawaii
with his family, and issuing periodic brief wooden responses while an
international crisis has continued to rear its ugly head between
Russia and Georgia the last couple of weeks. President Bush was
raked over the coals over the images of him on vacation while Hurricane
Katrina struck New Orleans and Mississippi back in the summer of 2005,
and whether the images of him on vacation that contrasted with the
images of the battered coastlines in the Gulf were fair or not, I
think most of us can agree that that was a turning point in his
presidency from him being a popular wartime president to one that
looked - even if it was just for a few days - unaffected and disengaged
while two states were heavily bruised by a devastating hurricane. His
numbers have never recovered from that.

Ouch.

Another aspect of this issue is the Christian left's unequivocal endorsement of Obama. To them, Obama is the Christian candidate, and his desire to greatly weaken America's offensive capabilites, end allegedly "threatening" missile defense initiatives, negotiate with evil governments under no preconditions,and attempt yet another a disarmament program in which non-Western nations will no doubt be allowed to cheat with impunity, are the Christian responses to the current danger level around the world.

Readers, do you believe that such an approach to foreign policy is truly the will of God?

There is now a full-scale war between Russia and Georgia.
Russia has aggressively bombed Georgian cities and attacked the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports oil from the Caspian Sea
to Turkey. But where are the anti-war protesters? As of this writing,
Christian Peacemaker Teams, Gods Politics, and one of Oklahoma's
prominent peace activists, James Branum, have absolutely nothing on
their sites about the days-old bloodshed in South Ossetia. Which,
sadly, seems to reinforce the notion that liberal peace activists only
care about bloodshed when America or Israel are involved. But if
anyone will be marching on the Russian embassy or sending human shields
to Georgia during the upcoming week, I'll blog about it ASAP.

Russia’s attacks are not only without justification, but they’re
also indiscriminate and far out of any doctrine of proportion. No
imminent threat justifies their actions. Nothing except a desire to
punish and subjugate Georgia motivates their shelling of civilian
targets far from South Ossetia. Russia should be ashamed of itself and
of its leader.

I hope this naked aggression backfires on Russia like their
catastrophic invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. They poured blood and
treasure into that project for years, and earned the world’s opprobrium
even as they hastened their empire’s downfall through their folly. We
helped that defeat happen, of course, and I want to see us help out
again.

(Monday, Aug. 11, noon) Still no word about the war from Christian Peacemaker Teams, only a report about an anti-Iraq protest that involved delivering "symbols of death and destruction" to the office of Illinois Congressman Rham Emmanuel. When will they be delivering these items to the Russian embassy in Washington, DC? When will their "human shields" be leaving for Tbilisi and Gori?

God's Politics finally has information about the war in their news roundup, but no opinion pieces about the war, and no plans to protest Russian aggression or aid the Georgian people.

The Great Oil bubble Has Burst, so says London's Telegraph.Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian dissident author who brought Western attention to the horrors of Stalin's gulag through his monumental work The Gulag Archipelago, died at the age of 89. Solzhenitsyn, along with Andrei Sakharov, worked tirelessly to bring down the Soviet Union from the inside.

"The U.S. had 12% fewer homeless last year than in 2005, and the
greatest decline occurred among those who chronically live on the
streets or in emergency shelters," reports USA Today. But due to the fact that this sharp decline occurred during the evil Bush years, the story received little notice outside of this article.

The Agriprocessors kosher meat packing plant in Potsville, IA has been charged with child labor violations involving dozens of teenagers. This is the same plant that was raided in May, when authorities discovered that hundreds of its workers were in the country illegally. Plant officials have also been accused of helping workers obtain forged documents and violating state wage laws. This plant serves as a prime example of the willful exploitation of workers who are in this country illegally -- workers who are blackmailed and abused and made complicit in criminal activity, all because they believe that if they do not cooperate they will be turned in and deported. This kind of thing makes me sick.

Finally, on the lighter side, Egotastic! is reporting that the stunning Anna Kournikova still looks amazingly hot. And I think I will have to agree with them.

"Undoubtedly,
some think the Second Amendment is outmoded in our society, where our
standing army is the pride of our nation, where well trained police
forces provide personal security and where gun violence is a serious
problem. That is perhaps debatable. But what is not debatable is that
it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment
extinct. We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals. It is so
ordered." (emphasis added)

In other words, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court has declared that it is not the role of the Supreme Court to purge portions of the Constitution as "unconstitutional." That is a very good thing.

...

As the result of a Supreme Court decision, sex offenders in Louisiana (and probably elsewhere now) cannot receive the death penalty for seriously injuring children during a sexual assault, if their victims do not die. But in the wake of this decision, Louisiana has decided that courts can order these offenders to be castrated, either chemically or surgically. I don't believe that killing "makes right" in this case, but I would be very happy to see these people neutered.

Two supervisors were finally arrested in connection with the Agriprocessors raid in May. There is no reason to prosecute only employees when supervisors and management were obviously complicit in forgery and other crimes related to the illegal status of many of the plant's employees.

The US has finished the removal of Saddam Hussein's "yellowcake" raw uranium stockpile, all 550 metric tonnes of it. No evidence can positively confirm that any of this material was purchased after the 1991 UN lock-down of Saddam's nuclear program, but the existence of the material, plus mothballed laboratories and Saddam's own confessions, should positively confirm that Saddam planned to restart his nuclear program and enter into a nuclear arms race with Iran.

What will hopefully be the final purge of the remnants of Al-Qaeda from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul is being led by Iraqi security forces.

This will probably be my last regular roundup and commentary on news events for the foreseeable future, as other commitments are taking a considerable amount of my time.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I haven't blogged about the devastating floods that have wiped out large portions of Iowa, and that threaten Illinois, Missouri, and other Mississippi River states. But other bloggers have asked some rather pointed questions:

Where are all of the
Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring
Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?

Where is all the
media asking the tough questions about why the federal government
hasn't solved the problem? Asking where the FEMA trucks (and trailers)
are?

Why isn't the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels in Chicago?

When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines?

Where are Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks?

Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen television sets?

When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a "vanilla" Iowa, because that's the way God wants it?

Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of cannibalism?

Where are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural people?

How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever again?

Actually there have already been charges of mismanagement by federal officials with regard to the classification of flood plains and the administration of flood insurance programs, yet the Democrats have remained silent on the issue. I guess Barack Obama just doesn't care about those bitter, gun-clinging, Bible-toting white Midwesterners ...

..

The opposition to Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe has suspended its attempt at a runoff election. Mugabe's forces have terrorized the nation during the past month in an attempt to crush opposition forces. It looks as though they have temporarily been successful.

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.

Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”

-- which is actually reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's infamous admission that he asked his then-12-year-old daughter Amy for advice on foreign policy issues. The Obama-Carter parallels continue ...

Have you been following the story of the "Countrywide Six" -- the six government officials who received special mortgage deals from Countrywide? Apparently Countrywide's CEO Angelo Mozilo made a special list of FOA's (Friends of Angelo) who received special treatment. The most brazen of the FOA's was Democratic Senator Kent Conrad from North Dakota, who called Mozilo personally to ask for a loan, then claimed that he wasn't expecting special treatment. I mean, it's normal to call the CEO of a company when you require its services, right? I needed a new computer last fall and immediately I began thumbing through my Rolodex, wondering who I should call to help me -- Michael Dell? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Isn't that what everyone does?

In related news, ACORN, the national poverty advocacy group that has previously been embroiled in voter fraud scandals, is being investigated again for improper use of lobbying funds in relation to the current mortgage lending mess. Apparently ACORN -- which is now fighting mortgage lending companies on the grounds that they mislead poor and uninformed borrowers -- had been lobbying the same institutions for years to relax income requirements and offer lower interest rates precisely so more low income families could qualify for mortgage loans.

...

In light of the recent Boumediene v. Bush decision handed down by the SCOTUS, which gives detained enemy combatants access to habeas corpus hearings in federal courts, former senator and attorney Fred Thompson provides a list of the rights already given to Guantanamo Bay prisoners before the Boumediene decision:

The right to hear the bases of the charges against them including a summary of any classified evidence.

The ability to challenge the bases of their detention before
military tribunals modeled after Geneva Convention procedures. As
Robert’s pointed out, some 38 detainees have been released as result of
this process.

The right, before the tribunal, to testify, introduce evidence,
including exculpatory evidence, call witnesses, cross examine the
government witnesses and secure release if and when appropriate.

The right to the aid of a personal representative in arranging and presenting their cases before the tribunal.

The right to have the government search for and disclose to the
detainee any evidence reasonably available to it tending to show that
the detainee is not an enemy combatant.

The right to appeal an adverse decision from the tribunal to the
Federal DC Circuit Court along with the right to employ counsel and
secure release if entitled to it.

The right to petition the DC Circuit to remand a detainee’s case
for new tribunal consideration if the petitioner comes up with newly
discovered evidence

The right to require the Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct a
yearly review of the status of each prisoner including the right to
have the Secretary of Defense review any new evidence that may become
available relating to the enemy combatant status of a detainee.

As a part of that yearly review, the opportunity for the detainee
to explain why he is no longer a threat to the United States, which
could lead to his release.

The DC Circuit can order release of the prisoner, and the head of
the DOD Administrative Review Boards can, at the recommendation of
those panels, order release upon an appropriate showing.

This should should (but obviously won't) put an end to the continual whining about Guantanamo prisoners being locked away with no access to courts and attorneys and no hope of ever being freed.

In fact, there are over 500 lawyers currently associated with Guantanamo detainee work. And despite the fact that most of them magnanimously claim to be working pro bono, in actuality, foreign governments, family members, and other special interest groups have funneled millions of dollars into lobbying efforts that would directly benefit some of the biggest Guantanamo attorneys.

Considering the significance that most of the Guantanamo detainees have within the world of radical Islamist terror, it seems inconceivable to me that many, if any, would be freed by federal court orders. What we will have in abundance, though, is yet another huge flood of lawsuits impinging upon our already overworked courts, and another eager group of attorneys ready to grow rich off of them.

Curiously, this news report describes Chiroux's father as a "rocket scientist" who lives near Huntsville, Alabama, which is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. This is interesting, since previous reports sought to portray Chiroux as a perfect fit for the stereotype of a poor white southern boy who barely finished high school -- "fillet mignon" for military recruiters.

“Why are they attacking Michelle Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and
not really attacking, to that degree, her husband? Because he has no slave blood in him. He does not have any slave blood
in him, but Michelle does." (emphasis added)

Wow. Is this a preview of the storm of "not black enough" race-based hatred that could be directed at Obama if he does not satisfy every whim of the SCLC and other factions of the contemporary racial grievance movement?

...

Barack Obama's former church, Trinity United Church of Christ, which in my opinion chose to emphasize grievance mongering over reconciliation, is now reeling from all the bad publicity it has received during the last four months:

"It's so frustrating to feel like all that gets talked about is these
few bad things. We have so many great programs happening here, and
they're ignored. It's like there are two different Trinitys: the one we
know and love, and the one everybody hates and makes fun of on TV."

It is truly unfortunate that the theatrics of a celebrity-seeking minister have damaged so many good people. But it is also a poignant reminder of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount:

You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Have you been following the sham "trial" of journalist and writer Mark Steyn? A Canadian magazine, Maclean's, published a piece by Steyn entitled "Why The Future Belongs To Islam," in which Steyn opined that the combination of immigration, intimidation through violence, and population expansion through significantly higher birth rates would result in a Europe dominated by Islamic culture within the next few decades.

A group of Canadian Muslims claimed that they were insulted by the article, and now Steyn's writings are being reviewed by the Human Rights Commission in British Columbia, based on allegations that Steyn's article "spread hatred against Muslims." This is frightening for a number of reasons, but particularly for the chilling effect that a guilty verdict will have on Canadians' ability to freely discuss religious issues. Oh, and did I mention that Canadian Human Rights trials have so far racked up a 100% conviction rate?

Yet left-wing loonies and Hollywood stooges swoon in Hugo Chavez's presence, declaring him a hero who will save the Western Hemisphere from the evil imperialism of the United States. These same people think that the Chimpy McHitlerburton Administration is the Fourth Reich. Some people are just stupid.

The post-election violence in Zimbabwe has been particularly hard on women and children, who are crammed by the hundreds into filthy and overcrowded "safe houses" in order to avoid being kidnapped by government forces, as a reprisal for men and young boys fleeing the government troops rather than serve in Zimbabwe's corrupt military. Naturally, Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe, had no idea that this has been going on.

Instead of simply counting votes, which is the only fair thing to
do with votes in any election anywhere — the members of the
Democratic-party rules Committee deem it in their purview to decipher
votes, interpret votes, translate votes — anything but count them!
Then, to add fantasy to falsehood they insisted on conjuring votes that
were never even cast. After all, so goes their illogic, if voters
didn’t show up who otherwise would have, its up to the Committee
members to discern how they would have voted if they did.

The citizens of Union County, SD have approved a rezoning measure that will allow Hyperion Energy to build a billion-dollar oil refining facility. If the plan materializes, it will be the first new oil refinery built in the United States in thirty years. Meanwhile Iran is building seven new oil refineries in an effort to end gasoline imports. Imagine ... producing your own fuel weakens the ability of other nations to control your economy! Anyone in Washington, DC paying attention to this.

And the Paris-based International Energy Agency says that we need to spend $45 trillion (yes, that's trillion with a "t") in green energy and nuclear power in order to combat global warming. I feel my wallet getting thinner already.

Old things suddenly seem new again with Barack Obama. We voted for "hope and change" in 1992, yet the "decade of hope" morphed into the true "decade of greed" with the expansion and bursting of the tech bubble. We voted for honesty in 1976, and ended up with a grievously weakened nation as a result. Incidentally, Walter Mondale is now on the Obama bandwagon. He's much too old for that magical VP spot, though.

Obama still has plenty of problems, though. A recent Rasmussen poll found that among likely voters, there was a strong feeling that the press was biased in favor of Obama. You can't swoon over a candidate and pretend to be objective. If the bias is this transparent, it could become a liability for Obama. Also, the race produced a considerable amount of criticism from other Democrats about Obama's policy objectives. Hysterical Democrat partisans will accuse McCain of racism if he even utters Obama's name, but it will be hard for them to smear respected members of their own party. Look for the Republicans to continue to use Democrat criticisms of Obama in the general election campaign.